Fox News' levee breaks (video)

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 8:05 AM on September 3, 2005.

This is a must-watch video. Shep Smith and Geraldo Rivera reporting on location in New Orleans were visibly upset. Upset by the devastation, upset by the response.

Geraldo said that the response is as bad or worse than what mother nature brought.

Shepard Smith:

"the government said you go here and you'll get help or you go that convention center and you'll get help and they didn't get help, they got locked in there and they watched people being killed around them and they watched people starving and they watched elderly people not get any medicine and NOW THEY KNOW IT'S BEEN HAPPENING BECAUSE WE'VE BEEN TELLING THEM REPEATEDLY OVER AND OVER EVERY DAY AND YOU KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING NOW? (AND I'M NOT BLAMING ANYONE, I'M TELLING YOU WHAT'S HAPPENING)"

He proceeds to explain that the government's set up a checkpoint preventing people from leaving the disaster zone where there's no food, water, medicine, or electricity to the parish where there is.

Hannity cuts in: "I want to get some perspective..."

The best part may be the juxtaposition of news ticker and image. As a disgusted Geraldo explains that watching Fox News on Wednesday he saw the people at the convention center saying "help us, help us, get us out of here" and that 48 hours later they're still there, the ticker below him reads:

"Bush says there's a 'flow of progress' in the region and caravans are continuing to arrive..."

At the end of this ticker quote, Geraldo who later cries with a baby in his arms says "as far as i know none of them, none of them, not a single one of them has been bussed out of here. They're all still here. Why is that? God, I wish I knew."

(While we're talking bussing, read Lindsay's post on the heroic teen who bussed citizens to safety and may be arrested for it.) (Crooks and Liars has the video)

Evan Derkacz is a New York-based writer and contributor to AlterNet.